The issue still remains, though. Once someone has disregarded God's will as you describe it and has created these embryos through "science," then: what next? Little humans sitting on a shelf waiting for death or harvesting?
If a couple is willing to step in and go through all the pain and joy and expense (emotional, spiritual, financial) of bringing these little humans into the world and raising them to adulthood, SHOULD they do that? Isn't it more moral than letting them die?
Many people who adopt these embryos do so out of love and out of a conviction that all human life is sacred, not out of a selfish desire to have children at all costs. Some do so even though they have children of their own.
One argument proponents of stem cell research use is that these embryos are slated to "expire" anyway - no one wants them - they are going in the trash. Well, not if they are adopted.
We shouldn't interfere in the proper order of Creation and when we do we breed awful moral and ethical results. Children should come about the usual way or not at all. But once some selfish couple has interfered in the proper order and has left behind a shelf of embryos, should the innocent die of neglect if a more altruistic couple steps in and says, "hey, we'll adopt the embryo and give him/her a chance at life?" Or should they be taken for research, as proponents of stem cell programs argue, since they are almost certainly going in the trash anyway?
I wish there was more guidance on this from higher up. To me, I think the couple who adopts a forgotten embryo for the right reasons has chosen to turn an evil technology to good purpose. A big part of sin, after all, is defined by intent. I imagine it is very difficult for church ethicists to come up with the number of conceivable (no pun intended) situations that could arise under these adoption scenarios. But given the stem cell debate, which has changed the IVF playing field just a little, it is really important to keep on these issues. To adopt or not to adopt? Much seems to hang on the intent (moral or immoral) of the persons doing the adopting.
Originally posted by byzanTN:
I think the root of some of this is widespread disregard for, and disobedience to, the will of God. I have known folks to whom God sent children. They didn't want them. I have also known those to whom God apparently did not send children. They spent thousands of dollars on every medical procedure they could find. Now granted, we can't always know the will of God in someone else's life, but we do know that these in vitro procedures are wrong.
